1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shopping cart handles, and more specifically to an apparatus for attachment to a shopping cart handle for providing a sanitary handle cover manufactured from a hypoallergenic, non-toxic material to prevent the spread of disease and germs from one user to the next.
2. Description of Related Art
The development and use of shopping carts in retail outlets, such as supermarkets and department stores, has greatly simplified shopping for the consumer. The shopping cart allows consumers to pick up a plurality of desired items for purchase and place them in the cart, while keeping their hands free and affording them mobility to move through the store while shopping.
A significant problem associated with shopping carts, as with any item frequently handled by numerous members of the public, involves the accumulation of germs, namely bacteria and other skin-borne infectious agents on shopping cart handles. Each successive shopper handling the cart comes into contact with the germs of the prior shopper, and further deposits his own germs.
For example, while shopping in a grocery store, shoppers often touch the merchandise prior to purchase. While the shopper may not actually purchase the merchandise, the merchandise has nevertheless been handled. Thus, an individual who has a highly communicable disease and has been pushing a shopping cart around may have endless possibilities of transmitting the communicable disease to the merchandise as well as the shopping cart, particularly the shopping cart handle. Similarly, communicable disease may be transmitted from person to person by successive use of a shopping cart, and touching of the handle, by multiple users.
To remedy this situation, the store itself could sanitize the handle of each shopping cart after each use thereof. This however, would be an unrealistic solution, as several customers handle each of the store's scores of shopping carts daily, and to implement such a sanitation program would be costly and time-consuming for the store. It is therefore upon the germ-conscious individual to solve this problem. Thus, the shopper is forced to bring something to wipe off the handle of the shopping cart prior to using a particular shopping cart, or alternatively to wear some type of gloves while shopping.
As a result of these significant health concerns, the prior art reveals at least one attempt directed to providing a sanitary handle device. U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,734, issued to Inman, discloses a sanitary handle device for a cart or carriage for dispensing clean or fresh paper over the handle so that the handle is kept clean and sanitary. The Inman device advances new sections of paper using a lever (48) that projects upward from the device. Actuation of the lever requires that the user manually grasp and actuate lever thereby exposing the user to infectious matter on the lever thus essentially defeating the purpose.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a sanitary attachment for shopping cart handles that prevents the transmission of communicable disease and germs.